RULE 39 | REVERT MULTILANE ONE-WAYS TO TWO-WAYS FOR SAFETY
- Holly Terrill
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 23
Walkable Wichita | Rami Stucky
Wichita’s Mayor, William C. Salome, was on a mission. He wanted to install more one-way streets. He got his wish in 1950 when he initiated the conversion of First and Second Streets. This change immediately led to “too much speeding,” according to city officials. Police increased fines. Arrests were issued.[1] It did not matter too much, though. First and Second Streets have remained one-way since.
“Revert multilane one-ways to two-way for safety,” argues urban planner Jeff Speck in Walkability City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places.[2] One-way, like First or Second, appears safe, Speck notes, because there are fewer chances for head-on collisions. Plus, drivers at a cross-street only have to concern themselves with traffic headed in one direction. However, this perceived safety often leads drivers to speed. Before 1950, when First and Second Streets were two-way, the average time to travel from Waco to Oliver was 14 minutes for First Street and 12 minutes for Second Street, respectively. After the change, drive times decreased to 10 and 11 minutes.[3] These changes came with costs. Shortly after converting Topeka and Market downtown to one-ways, City of Wichita traffic engineer George J. Fisher boasted that “average safe cruising speed is expected to increase on the new one-way streets.”[4] However, as Speck summarizes, there is “no such thing as faster and safer. Higher speed causes more collisions and more deaths.”[5] The data makes this clear. Between 2018 and 2024, there were 894 crashes along First and Second Street. Two percent involved a pedestrian or cyclist. About one percent involved an automobile that was overturned.
Wichita’s one-ways were such an avenue for speeding that, already by 1951, the Wichita Beacon called them “expressway streets” and “speedways.”[6] This was a cause of concern for residents. Plans to implement more one-way streets downtown in the late 1950s prompted Mrs. Earl J. Blakeman of 1521 Park Place to present a petition before the city commissioners. “One-way will make it a speedway,” she said, referencing plans to add Emporia and Main to the list of one-way streets. “Such a plan will increase street upkeep costs and be hazardous to school children who are forced to cross the street.”[7] It was not just downtown streets like Emporia or Main where one-way would be dangerous. Pedestrians suffered on First and Second as well, with the Beacon reporting that “since they became one-way streets … pedestrians have not had easy access to green lights at some intersections.”[8]
The increased speed impacts business, particularly because high speeds mean that drivers do not, or will not, stop to check out adjacent stores. During an unsuccessful protest of Topeka and Market’s conversion in 1951, Wichita’s Chamber of Commerce Executive Orie Garnett cited the conversion of First and Second as evidence. Garnett argued that their conversion damaged business, particularly nearby grocery stores. One of them, he alleged, had been forced to close because of the change.[9]
Increased speeds on one-way streets also raised concerns about declining property values. “Won’t one-way streets hurt residential areas?” the Wichita Beacon asked Jim Angell, the city’s traffic engineer, who proposed 16 additional one-way streets in 1957.[10] Angel deflected the question, stating that the “inconvenience to a few must be weighed against the benefit to the whole community from a better traffic flow.”[11] However, the city’s Planning Commission disapproved of several one-way street plans on this basis. Proposals to make Third Street, 11th, 13th, Ohio, and Wabash one-ways were deemed “not good” by Director J. Thomas Via. They would create “difficulty” in maintaining the residential character and desirable living qualities of adjoining properties.[12]
In 2024, the City of Wichita began devoting $4.9 million to renovations to convert Emporia, Topeka, English, Market, and Main back to two-way streets.[13] Saint Francis and William were switched in 2011 and 2013, respectively.[14] With those changes, downtown will be mostly two-way streets. The only exception will be First and Second Streets. City representatives claim that converting the two streets to two-way traffic will be challenging because they intersect with Interstate 135 and require federal cooperation. However, Speck notes that those two streets can be reverted to two-way from Downtown to Hydraulic.[15] Doing so should be paramount, whether for business or safety. On December 20, 2011, an individual driving at an extremely high rate of speed lost control on the 3800 block of East First Street, struck a utility pole, and immediately died.[16]
[1] “1-Way Problems to Be Discussed,” Wichita Beacon, March 15, 1950, 6.
[2] Jeff Speck, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2018), 92.
[3] “Origin Is Mystery,” Wichita Eagle, May 4, 1950, 5.
[4] “1-Way Streets Ready to Open,” Wichita Eagle, January 2, 1952, 5.
[5] Speck, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places, 92.
[6] “Wichita Wins Safety Award,” Wichita Beacon, April 26, 1951, 5; “Engineer Defends Plan: Says Its Best Remedy for Enticing More Shoppers to Downtown Area,” Wichita Beacon, February 15, 1957.
[7] “Wichitans, Businessmen Protest Proposed Elimination of Parking in Downtown Area,” Wichita Eagle, January 30, 1957.
[8] “Planning to Install More Walk Lights,” Wichita Beacon, July 21, 1950, 4.
[9] “2 New One-Way Streets O.K.’d,” Wichita Beacon, November 6, 1951, 5.
[10] “Engineer Defends Plan: Says Its Best Remedy for Enticing More Shoppers to Downtown Area.”
[11] “Engineer Defends Plan: Says Its Best Remedy for Enticing More Shoppers to Downtown Area.”
[12] “Planners Rap Traffic Survey,” Wichita Beacon, January 9, 1957.
[13] Chance Swaim, “Wichita Plans to Spend $4.9M to Change Downtown Streets, Make Them More Walkable, Bikeable,” Wichita Eagle, October 24, 2023.
[14] Shelby Kellerman, “How Converting a Downtown Wichita Street from One-Way to Two-Way Can Spur Development,” Wichita Business Journal, August 5, 2020, https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2020/08/05/emporia-street-downtown-wichita-two-way-street.html.
[15] Jeff Speck, “Toward A More Walkable Wichita” (Downtown Wichita Action Plan, Wave, March 4, 2025), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGX9gNXSx8I.
[16] Stan Finger, “Speed A Factor in Deadly Crash,” Wichita Eagle, December 21, 2011.
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